Work can be hard and it definitely has its highs and lows. But for many people, pride in a job well done ranks right up there in terms of what gives meaning to their lives. Does work get the respect it deserves for the reasons it should?
Here’s an interesting question for you: Should you run your team at work as a high-performance athletic program, or as a community sport club? Stop. Don’t answer just yet. I know, I know: You’re a high-performance type of person.
I was chatting with a colleague a few days ago. He was telling me about the way he likes to scrutinize the numbers every single day and I was telling him how I really don’t. “I’m a mathematician by training”, he offered. “I like numbers.” “I’m a lawyer by background”, I replied. “I like words.” What ensued was one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had in a long time.
Social distancing measures have been in full effect for weeks and legions of people have retreated – more or less happily – to the relative safety of their homes. Workplaces and public spaces that used to teem with people lie eerily empty and many employees – fortunate ones for whom telecommuting proved possible – have carried on with their professional lives in a strange virtual world where newly disembodied organizations large and small continue to operate.
I had lunch, a little while ago, with a friend who had recently vacationed in Japan for a few weeks. As we were waiting for our food to arrive, the sushi chef working close by behind his counter, my friend told me the story of a successful Japanese restaurant owner who had been asked if he had any plans to expand his restaurant—to get a larger space and add more tables.
December 1, 2009. It was on this very day exactly ten years ago that I reported for duty with my new employer. Ten years later, I still work for the same company so today officially marks my 10th work anniversary.
Allow me to start with a disclaimer: This article is a full-on recommendation for a little gem of a book titled “Virtue at Work” by Geoff Moore, Professor of Business Ethics at Durham University in the UK.
I don’t know how much time you spend thinking about succession planning but I think about it a lot. In just a few days, as it does every September, our judo club will be welcoming
In her book Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives, Professor Elizabeth Anderson of the University of Michigan makes a controversial statement about the nature of the corporation: The corporation, she asserts, is a totalitarian regime – a dictatorship. And she means this quite literally, not just as an analogy.
Ask yourself this question and answer it honestly — nobody need ever know how you answered: Do you find yourself being driven mostly by the necessity to abide by your duties and obligations, or by the desire to do your very best at everything you do?
